


Melt Me

by RaspberryDawn



Category: Smosh
Genre: Asexual Character, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Co-workers, Complete, Falling In Love, Holidays, Home for Christmas, M/M, Minor Character(s), One Shot, References to Depression, Romance, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 17:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13012224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaspberryDawn/pseuds/RaspberryDawn
Summary: He paused. It wasn’t until Noah wordlessly squeezed his hand that he spoke up again.“They just need some time to digest the news. I already can tell it’s not some phase, because that’s ridiculous, you’re not the first guy I’ve ever seen and just… had that voice in my head go ‘what if’, you know?”____________Noah realizes that his boyfriend isn't going home for Christmas.A holiday fluff-type story.





	Melt Me

“So, what are you going to do for Christmas?”

Shayne had seen Noah eating lunch alone, and after he grabbed a flavored water from the fridge he had decided to walk up on his friend. 

‘Friend' may not have been the right word. They’d gone on a few dates after professing a mutual attraction, but they hadn’t really labeled it — or told anyone. 

Noah looked up at him, his head craned slightly. He still had half a plain hamburger in front of him, most of the fries gone. Such a simple question had seemed to have thrown him deep in thought, and Shayne felt as if it grew more awkward the longer it took to get a response.

When he furrowed his brow and bowed his head back down, scratching the side of his dyed hair, Shayne wondered aloud.

“…I mean Hanukkah. Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

It was because he had caught a fuller look at the sweater Noah was wearing. He never thought much of it, the yellow rimmed blue sweater that he was fond of wearing, but the whole focal point was the large menorah on the front. 

Noah tilted his head slightly, looking down as Shayne did, and he pulled at his own collar slightly as he tried to explain.

“Oh, no, no, I wasn’t trying to get your attention or anything! Not to the shirt, uh, not… I mean, are you asking if I celebrate Christmas? Because man, I mean, I do. We kinda do both but there’s not any big, spectacular plans for either. Just family, and all that.”

Shayne gave the most sheepish grin, nodding as he sat down beside the other. For a moment he thought he had gone crazy. Of course he already knew Noah did both, but his reason for asking just had him stumbling over himself in a way that was quite contradictory to his usual self confidence.

“Your family’s all in town, so that’s gotta be pretty easy.”

“Except my brothers, but they’re going to come back home for Christmas. We’re just going to have dinner, open gifts, nothing big I guess. Well, it’s kinda silly to say that’s nothing, because that’s just what everyone does, right?”

“Gifts, and a meal, stuff like that. Yeah, that’s pretty typical. It’s only about two weeks away, too.”

Noah’s eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t been keeping up with any sort of countdown.

“You're right. I still need to get something for my dog.”

Shayne laughed a bit, even though Noah then insisted to him that it was serious business. All he could do was smile, nod and agree to be nice, because he really hadn’t even considered something like that for his own cat. 

Hell, he didn’t even tout his cat around for internet views or anything like most people in the situation of owning a cat and having an internet connection would do. It just existed in his life, basically.

He sat by Noah, distracting the twenty-year-old from eating as he spoke. It was nice to chide around and joke with him, and even rest his arm on Noah’s shoulder without thinking too much of it.

He had always thought too much in the past, after all, when Noah would jokingly grab him, kiss him, make sure he was always extra close in some way or another… and he felt glad to finally reciprocate. 

Noah meant so much to him. 

When he squeezed Noah’s shoulder and the kid with the dyed hair looked to him and grinned, he just felt warm. It was hard to put it in to words, so he just hoped Noah could feel how grateful he was. 

_________________________________________________

Noah was still young. He had a hard time picking up on the subtleties of things.

He wouldn’t have considered himself a bullheaded person — strong and stubborn — not by any means. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand how being social worked, because he did, and the problem was much more ridiculous than that.

It was just he was young, he hadn’t learned to catch on to everything yet.

Two days later he had found himself in the Squad office, telling the group how his family’s first night of Hanukkah had went. Standard, typical things, he didn’t find it that interesting himself even. Keith asked if potato pancakes were really meant to be eaten with applesauce, and while he reiterated he didn’t eat them that way, that yes, it was common to have applesauce alongside them. 

Courtney had a large family, and they’d all get together and cause chaos. It didn’t really sound fun the way she described it to him, all the chaos and running around. He had a larger extended family, with cousins and aunts and uncles, but there was a huge difference in that versus a load of siblings immediately flanking your sides. 

Keith was going to be taking another trip back to Ohio, and Olivia was going to be going on a family vacation with her parents. 

When they all talked about their plans, he didn’t even immediately notice that Shayne didn’t have much to pipe in with. It took until Courtney directed a comment towards him about feeling the same pain of airports over the holiday season.

He made some typical joke, essentially shrugging it off. Oh yeah, haha, airports, what a pain, a sour face and rolling of the eyes made it feel like something he didn’t want to go into. Though it could have been taken as meaning that everything that could be said about the subject was already overdone.

It was possible he was overthinking things, but he felt that he should at least try to have a talk with Shayne. It felt like it was possible that there was some reason he deflected the way that he did.

The conversation slowly dissipated. Everyone went back to their own things, just as they always did after random bouts of conversation. Noah stretched his legs out over the arm of the couch, leaning against Keith who was right beside him. Though his phone was in his hands, he kept glancing to his boyfriend. Shayne was holding his phone up above his head, seeing as he was sunk into a bean bag chair on the floor. 

He found it hard to get a read on Shayne.

There was always the next thing to do at work, however. They would soon be putting their little personal time on hold for a writer’s meeting and then another. He didn’t have the time to do what he needed as well as pull the blond away for the moment, so he just sent a text.

Noah gave the suggestion that they meet for dinner after work. Almost immediately, Shayne sent back that he was filming some of his show with Damien and would be late.

He held his cell in his lap, suppressing a frown. He tilted his head to look at Shayne again, but it seemed he was already on to something else. 

‘Maybe tomorrow’, he sent, trying to find a compromise. He heard the ding of the notification, but also the ring of Shayne’s phone.

At least he knew that Shayne couldn’t have faked such a surreptitious call at the exact same time. The shorter guy had frowned when he picked up the phone, excusing himself from the room. 

He may have been young and new to stuff like ‘relationships’, but the moment he felt that something was going on he knew that he’d have to get to the bottom of it. Maybe it was nothing, but he’d actually have to see it through that it was nothing. 

It was all very circumstantial evidence he had. Shayne just maybe felt bothered by having to go on vacation. Who knew — that’s why he wanted to find out.

_________________________________________________

He stayed late.

Later than he had to.

With the filming wrapped up with Damien, he was trying really hard to feel accomplished. He knew that they had done well, there was nothing wrong with the work that they had done, but he also felt glad to have it over with for a while.

That was a rare feeling for him. They only shot the show maybe three days out of the month, if even, since there wasn’t too much to it. He just was ready for the end of the week to get off on vacation.

Damien was feeling his usual sick self, so he didn’t hang around — his best friend had actually always boasted about his immune system, but he rarely ever could actually back it up. Through his constant sickness, he’d reminisce about the fact he never got sick. 

It seemed much more like a mild cold though, thankfully. Still, he was finished up now, and Shayne wished him well. With his work done, he was going to head on a plane back home tomorrow afternoon, before all the holiday rush. He even had convinced his blond friend to bring him to the airport, a true testament of their friendship.

So he went home, and everyone around them started heading home as well. Some of the other hosts, some of the crew, both for filming and behind the scenes… 

It was dark out.

Security would still be in the building, as well as a few straggling people not only in their division. 

There wasn’t a great excuse for his lingering. Even with some things shutting down around him such as lighting, he ended up heading back to the squad office room. 

It wasn’t hard to see, considering the street outside was lighted and the very same lights flooded into the large glass pane windows easily. There was always the quiet hum of electronics around, but Shayne nearly jumped as he looked around again just to notice Noah was seated on a bean bag on the floor, sunk into it. His skinny long legs were hunched close together as a blue light from his phone illuminated his face and reflected in his glasses.

Noah was the one who actually jumped instead, nearly falling off the seat. He scrambled to get back on it, lowering his phone and rubbing one of his eyes by pushing his glasses up.

“Were… were you asleep?”

“No,” the multi-colored hair guy croaked with the sort of strained voice that suggested he was lying. In fact, Noah just opened his hand against the side of his face, resting his face partially into his palm.

He looked very relaxed. 

Shayne stepped closer to him, kneeling down beside him.

“Were you ready to just be locked in overnight? Planning some huge heist? Wish you would have invited me. Sounds fun.”

He just sat beside the other, but Noah snorted lightly.

“I tried inviting you, not for some theft, but to talk sometime.”

The blond reached out and grabbed the hand in his lap gently, watching as Noah clicked the phone off. The blue glow had still provided light in order to see a bit of the intricacies of detail, but Shayne felt he could deal with it. 

Eye strain couldn’t be good on a blind guy, after all.

Noah turned himself on his side slightly, stretching out his legs and curling them around the chair instead. He placed his thumb on the top of Shayne’s hand, and the sullen look in his eyes suddenly had Shayne on high alert.

“What do we need to talk about…?”

‘We need to talk’ may not have been exactly what was said, but he felt a bit of that adrenaline.

When he spoke tiredly in his hand, it just confused Shayne a bit.

“I'm worried about you.”

“You’re the one who looks like he’s ready to spend overnight at the office.”

He pulled Shayne’s hand closer to him, resting it under his chin, and the two of them began to mutually stroke one another’s hand. He tucked his chin down, squinting slightly as he stared.

“I promised I didn’t mean to like… ambush you. I did fall asleep, for a little bit. Don’t tell anyone.” 

There was the smallest of a whine in the end of his begging. Shayne shook his head.

“Anyway, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I just… I’m gonna come out with it. Are you going home for Christmas?”

He paused in his reply, which said about all that needed to be said — even for someone poking notice at his own social immaturity lately.

“Are you fighting with them? Was it just too expensive? I thought you had plans before, right?”

“Ah… Lots of questions.”

Noah nodded in agreement, seemingly deciding to focus on one for now.

“Are you staying in town out of choice, or did they ask you to not come home?”

“Oh.” He could already tell that verbalizing it out loud was going to make him more emotional about it than he meant to be. “They didn’t ask me to, no. I’m just waiting for things to calm down a bit.”

“What needs to calm down?”

Shayne sat with his legs crossed, still letting the other have free reign over his hand. He couldn’t look right at Noah — it wasn’t his fault. Really, the only one to blame was himself, because this all had been information he could have waited to share with them…

“I don’t want to scare you, okay? It’s not that I told them because I feel like we’re getting super serious or anything. I know it’s just been a few dates. I know that… in the grand scheme of things, maybe it hasn’t been much. But I told them, how I’m at the moment seeing a guy, and that it’s something I could be doing into the future. Not that I named you, not to act like this is some kind of commitment! It uh… it just felt right to say.”

He paused. It wasn’t until Noah wordlessly squeezed his hand that he spoke up again.

“They just need some time to digest the news. I already can tell it’s not some phase, because that’s ridiculous, you’re not the first guy I’ve ever seen and just… had that voice in my head go ‘what if’, you know?”

Noah actually didn’t know.

It wasn’t even until Shayne had approached him to profess his attraction first, under the guise of asking why the other hadn’t kissed him in a while ‘for laughs’ that he had even thought it. Knowing Shayne was open and receptive to it was the key to unlock Noah feeling anything mutual. He still didn’t know what that said about his sexuality or anything, but, he understood how difficult it must be for someone to struggle with more traditional things like this tale.

“Well... I've known you for so long. My family knows you. I told them already we had been seeing each other and… I think they just want to meet you again, but as someone who means more to me.”

He tugged at Shayne’s hand. He held it tighter, not sure if anything he said could even make anything better. Maybe he saw it as if Noah was rubbing his more progressive minded and readily accepting family in his face.

After the tugging, Shayne actually gingerly grabbed Noah’s hand near his head as well and leaned in to hover over him. His head tilted perfectly enough already, he seized the opportunity to lay on a chaste kiss. 

He couldn’t stop just there. He instead placed his hand on Noah’s face, his palm cupping his jaw, fingers tilting the glasses up and away. With his eyes closed, he could feel Noah move a hand to rest against his clavicle and neck, just gently squeezing between his neck and shoulder.

It felt right to be kissing him. It wasn’t his first time kissing another man, it wasn’t even their first time, and all he could think was there was nothing that felt wrong about it.

Especially not when he felt such affection and compassion like this. He had to refrain from leaning his body down and taking it possibly too far. If it was lust, he would have done it already, but it wasn’t that.

Even when he pulled back from a kiss, he found himself littering Noah’s lips with soft smaller ones. His hand ended up laced in his hair, and he stared in the most beautiful pair of hazel eyes he’d ever known.

“I don’t want to say I love you,” he claimed. “I don’t want to scare you or do that to you. But I do keep thinking how much you mean to me, and just hope that you know it, but we could still end up going our whole lives and I could just never say it.”

Noah gave a small laugh, just on an exhaled breath. 

“I care for you so much. And… I don’t want you to feel alone.”

“I don’t. I have you.”

“Then don’t isolate yourself from me. Also… spend Christmas with me and my family. It’d really annoy my one brother if I brought someone home this year and he didn’t…” 

Shayne started to pull back from Noah, but he kept his hands where they were.

“If you ask them and it’s okay… I have nowhere else to go, I guess.”

The statement just hit Noah with such a profound sadness. He’d felt alone in his life, yes, but if he could ever do anything, he would put himself out there to try and make others feel better. 

When he was younger, that’s what Shayne had done for him. Shayne was the older cool guy in acting class, wearing leather jackets with his million dollar smile and sometimes even sunglasses inside. He was a geeky, gawky skinny kid, not tall yet at all, but just active enough to be labeled a bit weird for what he did.

The other student only ever had good things to throw toward him though. A compliment here or there, maybe some advice, some notes if he missed a class or some suggestions for movies… when Noah began to do the same, it had been a few years later and it had blossomed their friend ship when he was at least a legal adult. 

He never knew why Shayne ever put any faith in him, and he just imagined if Shayne had ever moved out of California years back, that what would happen if he was ‘back home’ at the moment, but with no home to go to until things cooled down.

Noah shifted to finally sit up more in his seat.

“I guess you just belong with me then.”

There was so much confidence to his statement. Shayne had no choice but to believe it.

_________________________________________________

They had let their coworkers know, rather casually. No one cared, much. It was Damien who had made most of the fuss to Shayne, but all of it had been predictable. He was just straight laced about dating coworkers, but was simultaneously supportive.

The girls seemed like they were trying to seem surprised that Noah was dating a guy, but he had to cut them short and explain he didn’t fully know his own attractions and just didn’t need labels. 

Christmas Eve night, Noah fell asleep, not to the visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in his mind, but to the soft touch of Shayne tracing freckles on his back with delicate touches. The glow of Christmas lights hanging outside made their way into the bedroom with flickers of multicolor bulbs. It had been a beautiful sight.

Shayne woke up with Noah wedged into the crook of his arm, using his lithe body to wrap around and be small enough to fit against the smaller guy. 

He’d never once taken off his sleep shirt or pajama shorts, and Noah had gone to bed shirtless in the first place. It was just wholesome, enough for neither of them to feel alone.

It didn’t stop Noah from groaning when one of his brothers loudly knocked on his door, mockingly asking if he could open it or if they weren’t decent.

They seemed fine with his presence. Shayne was still on his best of best behavior, trying to charm and prove that he was a good specimen for their son. It was just a natural reaction for him, as well as any slightly nervous young man around a partner’s parents. 

It seemed to have worked, too, judging by the amount of family photos he was invited into — and even a few photos of him and Noah together, separate. 

He had been a bit worried he would be treated as delicate, like a charity case because of the situation he had no control over. He wouldn’t find out until days after the holidays that Noah hadn’t divulged his entire situation, since he had the very same worries that it would seep through even unconsciously if they knew.

Shayne was glad that he didn’t isolate himself as he had sort of intended to. He easily could have just let nobody know that he wasn’t going anywhere for the holiday. Hell, during the actual holiday weekend he was at least still on a texting basis with most of his family.

Christmas Day hadn’t been dark after all, but the source of his warmth wasn’t the California sun and the mild weather. 

It was the way Noah had melted his worries and instead fused something resembling a future.

**Author's Note:**

> minor note: ace tag is for Noah. he is portrayed (indirectly) as asexual (as well as some sort of romance specific-spectrum). it may not feel significant but sometimes when I write him, I feel it's noteworthy at least, despite it never being the main focus (yet).
> 
> also. merry holidays.   
> it's very late but I just had to get this all out. one am to five am. bad decision


End file.
